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The crackling of the fire was heard through the country rock music playing and the children screaming in delight as they played with their glowsticks. There were multiple light sources in the area everyone was at, with the fire sticking out with its bright orange glow, something the other lights wouldn't be able to replicate. The light was only made more prominent when one of the male adults threw in a large piece of wood. He, along with his friends chatted and laughed as more crackling emerged from the burning.
Not too far from the fire, seated in chairs were two girls. One had short dark grey hair, with their side hair bangs being longer than the rest of their hair, having a pale complexion with greyish-green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a black long sleeve shirt with a long ruffle at the back, accompanied with ripped jeans and pastel colored slip ons, which were stained with mudded water that had dried a few hours back. On both their wrists there were bracelets: the left wrist sporting a rainbow with pearls on it, the right wrist with two circle locked glowsticks that had dulled their glow.
The other girl was more darker skinned than the former, with light blonde hair being held in high pigtails with light grey ribbons and dark brown eyes. She wore a long sleeved beige dress with cheetah patterns printed on it, as well as black leggings underneath and sandals. She also wore a necklace with a charm that looks like a puzzle piece that had the number 4 engraved on it. Like the first girl, she too had two circle locked glowsticks on her right wrist, the only difference being that the glow was more bright, as if the glowsticks had been cracked a few minutes ago.
"The fire feels nice, huh Jade?"
"Yeah." Jade replied, shivering slightly as a light gust of wind blew past. They slid their chair closer to the fire to keep warm. Satisfied with where she placed herself, Jade rose her hands to the fire and let the fire's comforting warmth engulf them.
"Hey, so...I assume you're a lot more comfortable in those dry clothing now?"
"Yeah. Thanks for that, Rachel."
"No problem! That's what friends are for." Rachel chirped as she turned to her friend and smiled. Rachel scooted her chair closer to the fire, to get to where Jade was. They both stayed quiet as they stared at the fire glowing in the night. The volume of the crackling had died down from the wood now being mostly burnt up and the size of the fire being smaller than before, but the warmth of it stayed basically the same. The two girls spoke none a word for what felt like minutes until a drop of water fell from a high branch and dropped on Jade, who quickly shot up from it.
"Jesus, that's cold!" Jade exclaimed as she jumped from her seat, putting her hand where the water droplet landed. Rachel held back her laughter at her friend's reaction. After a bit, Jade seemed to have calmed down from the shock of the cold water dropping on her. Jade looked to notice that two younger girls–around the age of 8 to 10 years old–were roasting marshmallows above the fire. The marshmellow on the older girl's stick lit in flames, and soon after the girl pulled the marshmellow out of the fire to quickly blow out the flame. Rachel also noticed the making of the s'mores and turned to Jade, who was also eyeing the s'more making....seems that she had the same idea. Before Rachel could say anything, Jade spoke:
"I'll get the sticks."
"Jade, you do realize that we can just use the sticks already taken down, right?"
"No, it's fine! I can do it!"
Rachel watched as Jade made attempts to reach the branches closest to them, and while Jade had managed to grab hold of the branch, she was only able to grab the branches with leaves on them. Rachel could only shake her head at what was happening, and turned back to where the two younger girls were. The girls had left to play with the other kids that were still at the party, however Rachel noticed that the stick from before were left with nobody else using them, melted marshmellow goop left from their previous use. Rachel turned back to Jade, who was now running to make a jump at a different tree in hopes to get a fresh s'more stick.
"I'm gonna get the s'mores set up!" Rachel shouted so that Jade could hear her.
"Fine by me!" Jade shouted back, then continued to make another jump at the tree. Rachel made her way to where the items needed for s'mores were, which admittedly wasn't too far from where she was. She digged out the marshmellows, graham crackers and chocolate bars from the pile and placed them on the nearest clean spot. While breaking the crackers into squares, Rachel accidentally broke one graham cracker into two long rectangles. Rachel sighed as she discarded the long rectangles and went to grab a new graham cracker, this time breaking it into two squares as intended. She grabbed one of the vacent sticks and placed a marshmellow on it, then crouched down to the fire and hovered the marshmellow over it. While roasting her marshmellow, Rachel heard Jade walking back to the fire, assumably in defeat in not being able to grab and rip off any large sticks.
"Welp, I give up." Jade spoke as she grabbed the other vacent stick and placed a marshmellow on it, then started roasting it. "By the way, your marshmellow is charring on one side."
"Ah!" Rachel noticed and quickly rotated her marshmellow on a non cooked side. They both stayed quiet as they roasted their mellows, letting the crackling of the fire fill the silence both of them were giving. After a bit, Rachel moved her now fully toasted (and slightly charred) marshmellow away from the fire and placed it on the chocolate and one half of the square graham. She picked up the other half of the graham cracker and placed it on the marshmellow, removing the stick that was impaled inside. She picked up the now finished s'more and walked to her seat and sat down. Not long after Jade now also had a finished s'more in her hand as she sat down in her seat, too.
"So...." Rachel started, breaking the silence "...are you enjoying it here? The party?" Jade had took a bite out of her s'more when she heard the question. She swallowed to answer.
"Hmm...it's alright." Jade replied to the question, then looked up at the night sky "just didn't expect to stay here this late, though."
"Really?" Rachel pulled out her phone and checked the time:
[11:06 pm]
"Gosh, it is pretty late!" Rachel hadn't noticed how much time had passed during her time at the party, so she was a bit shocked to say the least. Jade giggled to herself at Rachel's reaction, but quickly gained her composure when Rachel looked her way with a shocked expression on her face. Rachel didn't say anything about Jade laughing at her, whether she didn't notice at all or that she was too shocked to care about what Jade was doing. Rachel turned away from her friend and stared at the fire with a not as shocked expression on her face, but one could tell she was still a bit surprised. Jade stood up from her seat, having finished her s'more from earlier.
"Rachel, you forget about how fast time goes now?"
"Yeah..."
"Time is confusing."
"It sure is, Jade." Rachel looked at Jade and awkwardly laughed, Jade joining in. The laughter was shortlived, though, as someone's voice shouted from a distance.
"Jade, come here! We're gonna be leaving in a bit!"
"Coming, mom!" Jade called out, then turned to Rachel "Well, I have to get going. See you next week?"
"Sure! Usual time?"
"Yeah. Well, see you later." Jade spoke before walking away from the fire, to her mom. Rachel waved her friend goodbye as she walked away. Once Jade was gone from her sight, Rachel put her hand down and smiled. A sad smile, for that she didn't want to stop spending time with Jade just yet, but she knew that she couldn't stay with her forever. As she returned her gaze to the fire, she let out a laugh and said:
"See you next week, Jade."